Evolution of the Heart
by Hakuhunter
Summary: Evolution is never an easy choice. Choosing what to evolve into is one of the hardest choices for a Pokemon. That said, Sarah the gloom can't decide. But, when a thief comes in the night and steals the evolution stones, she is the only one who can get them back. Now, not only will she go on a quest to find the missing stones, but also to find herself, and who she truly is.
1. The Hardest Decision

**Hey, and welcome to my new story. Thanks for checking it out. I do hope that you will like it.**

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Snow. That's what was falling on the ground. Snow was the sign of Winter. The season of Winter itself hadn't actually come yet, as it was still only November, but it sure felt like it. Of course, Winter happened at a different time for all Pokemon all around the world. It all depended on where they lived. But, for a simple gloom, it started in December.

The said gloom trudged through the snow, leaving footprints behind her. She was shivering because of the cold, holding her hands close to her body. Being part grass type didn't help with the crisp weather much. Looking up, the gloom saw that the snow was falling at a slower rate than it was earlier, which was good.

Still didn't make her feel any warmer though.

All around her, bare trees stood, towering over her like giants. They almost looked like they were bending down to try and grab her. Of course, she knew that's not what they were doing, but she had never gotten rid of that childish, imaginative way of thinking, even after all these years.

Continuing on her trek, the gloom couldn't shake the feeling of anxiety that she had. It was weighing upon her heart just like the snow upon her petals, growing with every passing second. It was a terrible feeling, and if you've ever felt it, you know what it's like.

It's not pleasant.

Speaking of snow, enough had landed on the gloom's head to actually be heavy. She shook it off before continuing on her way.

The partial poison type wondered how much longer it would be until she would reach her destination. She had walked this path many a time before, but not a lot while it was snowing, and never while feeling this nervous, so it felt a lot longer than it actually had been.

But, familiar landmarks finally appeared through the blanket of snow, signaling that the gloom was close.

Indeed, after a few more minutes of frosty travel, the grass type made her way to a small building that was almost hidden by the snow.

Well, 'building' was a bit of an overstatement.

It was really just a small cabin with a domed roof made out of twigs, grass, mud; really anything that could be put together to make an abode with room inside of it.

But, despite its roughness, it had a certain elegance to it that couldn't be explained, and the gloom liked it.

Going up to the door, the gloom took a deep breath and gave the door two good knocks before bringing her arm back to herself to help with the cold.

"Coming," a female voice came from inside the house. After a few more seconds of the gloom shivering, the door was engulfed with a pink light, and then it opened.

The Pokemon who had opened the door was a kirlia. She was slightly taller than the gloom. Both of her hands were across her stomach, almost touching each other, but not quite. The back of her feet were in the air, and she was balancing on the tips of them.

The kirlia exclaimed when she recognized who was at the door.

"Oh, Sarah, I wasn't expecting you; please, come in," the kirlia invited her friend with a bow.

"Thank you," the gloom named Sarah took the offer and walked inside the hut.

The inside didn't look too much different from the outside, to be honest. Except for the fact that it wasn't damp at all, the interior didn't look too grandiose. The walls and roof were made of wood while the floor was just dirt.

Not that Sarah cared at all. Her home didn't look too much different.

Inside the house, it was a bit warmer, but not that much. The kirlia closed the door with her psychic powers, just like how she opened it.

" _Wish I could do that,"_ Sarah thought.

Looking at the kirlia, Sarah had always thought that she moved in the most elegant way. She always had the most perfect balance, never falling over or even letting the back of her feet hit the floor.

" _Wish I could do that, too_."

"You must be freezing. Here, let me light a fire for you," the kirlia offered.

"That would be nice, thank you," Sarah was still shivering from frigid weather outside.

The kirlia put her hands together and formed a small, blue orb in them. Afterwards, she launched the orb at a fire pit that was in the middle of the house. The orb came into contact with the wood inside the pit, and it violently burst into flames, which made Sarah jump a little.

No matter how many times it happened, the fire always at least startled her. Even if she was prepared for it. Maybe it was an internal instinct to be afraid of fire because she was part grass type; Sarah didn't know.

"Please, take a seat while I get you something to eat," the kirlia said. Sarah thanked her, and she went off towards her kitchen to get something for her.

Sarah sat on the ground and took this time to look around the house. There was a small kitchen area near the back of hut where the kirlia had gone. Inside, there was a wooden counter that was hand-made and a stump to keep all of the food in.

Sarah had always thought that it would be so cool to be able to make stuff like the counter, but she had never gotten the talent, and she never had any time to have someone teach it to her, especially nowadays.

Other than the kitchen, not much else was in the house. Two small beds made out of leaves and grass rested in another area with a wooden bucket beside it.

Sarah was so distracted looking around the house that she didn't see the oran berry that was next to her head. Eventually, she looked back and saw the blue fruit hovering next to her with a pinkish light around it. The kirlia had sat down next to the fire and waited for Sarah to grab the berry.

"Oh, sorry," the gloom apollagized and snached it out of the air.

"It's no problem at all," the kirlia said with a large smile. "So, why did you stop by my humble abode this night?"

Sarah took a bite out of the oran berry before she answered. She hadn't realized how hungry she had been. She skipped lunch because of how nervous she was.

"Well…" Sarah let out a sigh. "Grace, I need your help," Sarah admitted quietly.

"Of course. What might you need assistance with?" Grace asked. She took a bite out of her own berry that she had gotten.

"It's…it's about tomorrow." Sarah hated talking about the subject because it made her even more nervous when she thought about it.

"Tomorrow?" Grace asked skeptically. "What about it?"

"You see, my ceremony is tomorrow," Sarah explained.

"Oh, I see. Shouldn't that be a happy thing for you?"

Well…for most gloom, I guess…but…" Sarah slugged through her sentence with a heavy heart. "I…still haven't decided," She finally was able to spit out.

Grace's happy expression turned to a sad one almost instantaneously.

"I see. That is a problem," the kirlia agreed.

"I came here hoping that you would have some advice that could help me decide," Sarah said before scarfing down the last of her berry. She had finished her oran berry before Grace had even taken two bites of her's.

Grace stared into the fire for a few seconds, not looking at Sarah.

For the next several moments, the only sound was the crackling of the fire. The embers went up from it for a half a meter or so, only to disappear out of sight afterwards.

Grace closed her eyes and bowed her head.

"I'm afraid there's not much I can help you with, not this time," Grace said with a somber tone of voice.

Sarah was stunned by this answer.

"Wh-why not?" Sarah asked, bewildered. Grace had always been able to help her with any problem she had in the past. What was different about this time?

"You want my help with your evolution, correct?" Grace asked to make sure they were on the same page.

"Yes, the ceremony is tomorrow."

Grace looked up. "Sarah, evolution is something that you have to decide for yourself. I can't make the choice for you, and you know that."

Sarah nodded. "But I thought you might have some advice to help me decide."

Grace took her second bite out of the berry in her hands. "Well…" The kirlia thought about what to say. "Which one do you think is the most like you?"

"That's the problem! I don't know!" Sarah exclaimed in exasperation. "Sometimes I think that bellossom would suit me best, but at other times, vileplume seems more who I am."

"What do the other members of your clan think?"

"They're as equally divided as I am. I asked all of them for their opinions. Half think I should evolve into a vileplume, while the other half think the exact opposite." After explaining this, Sarah sighed. "I don't want to choose the wrong one, because the one I choose will be what I stick with til the day I die. There's no way to reverse it. That's why it's so hard to decide. What do you think?" she asked.

Grace shook her head. "Evolution is the hardest decision for a Pokemon to make, especially for someone like you, who has a choice. I'm not a gloom myself, so I couldn't help you."

Sarah thought about it some more while the fire keep crackling. "If only I had some more time to decide. Then, maybe, I would be able to make a choice."

"Can you postpone the ceremony?" Grace asked.

"I've already moved it forward twice, and the elders said that it can't wait anymore."

"So that's why you came to me," Grace guessed.

"Yeah…"

"Well, I'm sorry, but I don't believe I can help you. I know you traveled up here for my advice, so I apologize."

"It's alright," Sarah said with clear sadness in her voice that made it clear the situation was anything but that.

"Here, I have an extra bed that I keep around for visitors. You can stay here for the night."

"Thank you," Sarah accepted Grace's offer with a nod.

"Maybe the answer you seek will come to you in your sleep," Grace thought out loud while getting up to her feet. Sarah knew, however, that that was just wishful thinking.

Grace walked over to the bucket that was near the beds and picked it up. "I'm going to go out and collect some berries before it gets too dark. You can feel free to go to sleep whenever you feel like it."

"Right…"

Grace made her way to the door of the hut and opened it with her mind. She walked through the doorway, but poked her head back into the house to say something.

"Sarah?"

"Yeah?" Sarah turned around to face her friend.

"Do what your heart thinks is right," the kirlia said before her head disappeared and the door closed.

"If it were only that simple…" Sarah said to herself.

After a few more minutes of staring into the fire, Sarah decided that it was wise to get some sleep. Tomorrow would come, whether she got some rest or not, and she would rather be recovered for it.

Sarah layed down on the bed of grass and leaves and closed her eyes, trying to forget everything that would happen when she woke up. Eventually, sleep took her.

Sarah was right about the wishful thinking. She didn't dream at all, and if any answers came to her while she was asleep, she didn't remember it.

Currently, Sarah was walking down the forest path down from Grace's house to her village. Grace herself decided to walk down there with Sarah. She, too, wanted to see the ceremony, after all.

No words were exchanged between the two. Grace knew that there was nothing more to say, and Sarah didn't want to talk at all. The only sound was coming from the crunching of the snow under Sarah's feet. Grace didn't make a noise while walking on the snow, her feet barely touching the ground.

" _Wish I could do that_ ," Sarah thought.

The way back from Grace's house felt even longer than the road up. But, eventually, the two made their way to the village where Sarah had grown up, and now, where she will evolve into her final stage.

The village, which was usually surrounded by lush green trees, bushes, and the like, now only looked like an empty shell of what it used to be. Then again, come next spring, it would look all glorious once again.

The second that they walked into the village, Sarah could tell something was wrong.

Normally, at this time in the morning, the village would be a lot more lively than it was now. Pokemon would be running around, doing what they needed to do in order to prepare for Sarah's ceremony. Some would be putting up the stage that she would be on, while others needed to get food ready for the feast they had afterwards. Evolution was a big deal, and every time someone was about to evolve, a large gathering was held. There was always singing, dancing, and lots of food.

None of that was present here. No one was running around preparing. No one was celebrating. Something had gone terribly awry, and Sarah could sense it.

As Grace and Sarah made their way through the village passing lots of huts and houses. As they were walking, the two saw a lot of Pokemon in groups, whispering to each other in a quiet enough voice that Sarah couldn't hear any of it. Whenever someone in the groups would see Sarah, they would only glance at her, and then go back to what they were talking about.

"Something's wrong," Sarah finally spoke up.

"I agree. We should find someone who can tell us what's going on," Grace suggested.

After a little bit more walking through the village, the two came upon another group of Pokemon who were also whispering. This group, however, was comprised of only vileplume and bellossom. One of the bellossom heard Sarah and Grace approaching and turned towards them. Her eyes grew wide when she recognized who they were.

"Sarah!" the bellossom exclaimed and ran up to the gloom. The other members of the assembly stopped their mumbling and looked over to her.

"Mother, what's happening here? Why is the village so quiet?" Sarah asked.

"Oh Sarah, it's terrible!" she cried out, on the verge of tears.

"Mom, what are you talking about? What's going on?" Sarah wanted to know.

Finally, Sarah's mother was able to cough out the reason she was so upset.

"They're gone, Sarah-the evolution stones. They've been stolen!"

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 **Thanks for reading. I'll have the next chapter out as soon as I can.**


	2. Homecoming

**Hey guys and welcome to chapter 2. Sorry this took awhile to update, but now that school's started, I'm back in the writing kick and will be posting a lot more. Also, I realize that this story isn't going to be at all popular because of my choice of Pokemon that I use in this story, but hey, all I see now a days on are stories about Eevee, it's evolutions, and Lucario, and that just gets boring after awhile. I tried to pick characters for this story that were less popular, but that I could still make characters out of.**

 **With that out of the way, enjoy!**

For the first few seconds after her mother had told her the news, Sarah didn't know how to react.

"Wh-what do you mean stolen?" Sarah asked once she had processed the information.

"It's…it's…" the bellossom tried to get out, but eventually couldn't take it as she started to cry, the tears streaming down her face. She quickly covered her face as she broke down. Sarah pulled her mother into a hug and let the grass type weep on her.

For the next few moments, the only sound was that of Sarah's mother's muffled crying.

"Miss Liza," Grace started, being as polite as possible. She knelt now to the bellossom's level to be able to talk with her. "Can you please tell us what happened?"

Liza parted herself from her daughter and wiped away as many tears away from her face as she could. "They…they were stolen…during the night," she answered, still choked up.

"Do you know who stole them?" Sarah asked.

"That's just the thing," a voice from the circle interrupted. All three of them looked up to see a Vileplume approaching them. Sarah recognized him as the head elder of the village. "They came in the middle of the night so no one was able to see who they were," he continued.

"Did they leave any evidence behind telling us who they might have been?" Grace inquired.

"They did leave behind some footprints," The elder confirmed, "but no one has been able to identify the Pokemon that they belong to."

Grace's eyes lit up when she heard this.

"I might know who they belong to," she announced. All eyes turned to her when she said this. "I've been studying Pokemon footprints lately and if I could take a look at them, I might be able to know what kind of Pokemon left them."

The elder looked at Grace with questioning eyes. Grace didn't come to the village that often, so she was seen by most as an outsider. She didn't mind, however.

After a little thinking, the elder finally nodded his head.

"Follow me," the vileplume said as he motioned with his hand for her to follow. He started off in the direction opposite of where Grace and Sarah had entered the village. Grace started to follow the elder while the rest of the circle of leaders that were there followed after her, including Liza. Sarah decided that she had nothing better to do so she tagged along at the end of the line.

After walking through the rest of the village, the group arrived at a small hut near the edge of the village.

"Here is where we keep all the evolution stones in the whole village," the elder explained while they approached the small house. "But there's been one thing that's been bothering me," he continued. "We keep a lot of different stones in here, but only Sarah's Sun and Leaf Stone were taken, no others."

"That is strange…" Grace agreed with a hand to her chin.

All of the Pokemon came to a stop in front of the hut.

"Here are the footprints we found," the elder announced. With an outstretched hand, he pointed to a few distinct indentations on the ground that were somehow still there from last night and had not been disturbed.

Grace detached herself from the group and approached the footprints. She knelt down to get a closer look at them, touching them ever so slightly. Whoever had left these footprints had three fingers on each paw with the middle one being smaller than the other two. They also had a circular gap in the middle of the paw.

"I believe these are the footprints of a…" Grace trailed off. She wanted to examine the prints once more time to make absolute sure that she was right before she made a claim.

"A…what?" Sarah asked when the kirlia didn't continue.

After a few moments of examination, Grace had come to a conclusion.

"A ninetails." Grace said as she stood up.

Everyone including the Elder and Liza nodded their heads in understanding.

Everyone except Sarah, that is.

"What's a ninetails?" she asked, having never heard of a Pokemon with that name before.

"Didn't you have a guard outside this hut?" Grace asked the elder, ignoring Sarah question for now.

"We did, yes, but something strange happened to him in the middle of the night," the elder explained. "He claimed that he saw the rest of the village on fire, and so he left his post and went to go see what was going on. When he got there, however, the fire was gone and there was no evidence that a fire had ever started last night. After the guard got back to his post, he came back to find that the two stones had been stolen."

"That would line up with the thief being a ninetails," Grace said. "They have the ability to make illusions and force Pokemon to see things that aren't really there."

"I see…" the village elder nodded to show that he now understood who they were really up against. "But there aren't any ninetails that live in this area-at least, none that I know of."

"Maybe they're not from here. Maybe they came from somewhere else," Grace suggested.

"Perhaps, but if that were the case: one, how would they know where we keep our stones, and two, why would they only take Sarah's stones?" the elder brought up some good points.

"I don't know why, but we do need to go after that ninetails as quick as possible so he or she can't get too far," Grace told the elder. "Since this seems like a ninetails who know what he or she is doing, we would want to sent warriors after him or her, right?"

The vileplume just shook his head at this comment.

"We aren't able to do that," he replied. Sarah didn't like how fast the elder was to say that and dismiss any kind of alternative, even though she knew why it wasn't that simple.

Grace, however, didn't know why, and so she promptly asked.

"We have the Three Village Festival in a two days," the elder explained, "and we will need all of our fighters there to represent us in the tournaments. It is very important that we have all of them there."

"More important than getting Sarah's stones back?" Grace questioned.

The elder grew silent with this last comment. He stood there contemplating this question.

"I need some time to think about what to do," he finally said. "I'll send someone to get you two when we have made a decision," the elder said.  
With a small nod, the elder walked away from the hut and everyone who was beside it. The small group that had been with him started to follow, too, knowing that the elder would want them to help find out what to do.

Liza looked back at her daughter with a sad expression on her face. She forced a smile before turning around and walking with the others.

Grace and Sarah watched them until they went around a corner and were out of sight.

"Is the festival really that important?" Grace asked once she had walked over to where Sarah was.

Sarah, who had been mostly silent up to this point, gave a weak nod.

"The Three Village Festival is something that only happens once every fifty years," the gloom explained. "All three of the villages that live within this forest get together to have a huge festival that lasts two weeks. During that time, there's always a battling tournament where each village enters all their best fighters. Who ever wins gets to hold the next festival, which is a big honor, as you can imagine."

Grace took a small glance around the village before replying.

"I take it you guys didn't win last time?"

"No, we didn't," Sarah said with a nod. "The plan was to have my evolution ceremony, and then immediately go to the festival. That's why I was a little overlooked compared to what is to come."

"I see…"

"By the way, what's a ninetails?" Sarah asked again, this time directly to Grace.

"It's a vulpine, fire-type native to the Kanto region with nine tails. It's also the evolution to vulpix," the kirla explained. "Ninetails are known for their ability to create illusions, as you heard. It is also said that if you step on, pull one of their tails, they put an 1,000 year curse on you."

"What's the curse?"

"That wasn't in the book I read, but it sounds like something that is serious."

"What would that kind of Pokemon want with my evolution stones?" Sarah asked.

"That is what I do not know."

Sarah gave out a large, stress-relieving sigh. Afterwards, she walked away from Grace in a direction that led out of the village.

"Where are you going?" Grace asked.

"Somewhere quiet to think about everything that's happening." Sarah left it at that and continued on her way.

"Be sure to be back for the meeting later!" Grace called after her.

"I will be," Sarah said back with a heavy heart. This whole morning had put her feelings out of whack, and now Sarah just needed to go someplace to calm down.

And she knew just the place.

* * *

After about a good ten minutes of walking through the forest, Sarah arrived at where she wanted to be. Through the thick sea of trees, in a small, remote area of the forest, was a large, serene pond that was not very popular. Very few people knew that it existed, and the small amount that did, including Sarah, didn't tell anyone. After all, the reason that Sarah went here was because almost no one was ever at it.

Once in a while Sarah would find another Pokemon here, also enjoying the peacefulness that was this pond. Sarah always assumed that they were wild and not part of any village around, considering the other two villages in the forest were a day's walk away and she had never seen them in her village. Then again, she didn't know that for sure because she had never talked to any of them. This pond had a calming aura. It was understood by all who came here that this was a quiet place, and anyone who came here did so to get away and be alone. Talking to anyone would defeat that purpose.

Today, however, Sarah was to only one there.

The gloom went up to the side of the water and dipped her legs into it, and then sat down on the bank.

The water felt good on her legs as the shallow waves brushed up against them. It was a little cold, but not too much. Thankfully, it also hadn't frozen over.

Sarah always came here and dangled in the pond when she needed to think something over or when she needed some time alone. It was the perfect place to do both of those things.

Sarah breathed in and out deeply to help get her thoughts together.

" _So, my evolution stones have been stolen by a…ninetails…"_ she thought to herself, _"and the elder doesn't want to send any warriors to go after them because of the festival."_

Sarah's stomach grumbled while she was thinking. The berry from last night had not lasted, and she didn't have any breakfast.

" _It's not like I can go after that ninetails myself,"_ she kept thinking, despite her hunger. " _I'm not a fighter. I know a few attacks, but ninetails sound like a dangerous Pokemon. Then again, it's not like I can just let them steal my stones."_

Sarah looked down at the water and stared at her reflection.

"What am I going to do?" she asked herself outloud.

"There you are," a young, male voice came from behind Sarah. "I knew I'd find you here."

Sarah immediately recognized that voice. She whipped around as fast as she could.

"Drew!" she exclaimed.

The Pokemon behind her had mostly purple skin, with a few brown parts around his waist and his feet. Three blunt spikes came out of his head. On his back was a small, brown backpack.

"Hey, Sarah," the tyrogue said with a cheerful attitude and a wave. "How have you been?"

Sarah got up from her spot as quick as she could and ran over to the fighting type.

"Drew! When did you get back?" Sarah answered his question with one of her own.

"Just now, actually. I made it my plan to tell you I was back before doing anything. Grace told me you had gone somewhere quiet to think. I knew that this is where you'd be."

Sarah smiled when she heard this.

"I guess you do know me really well," she said. "Now come on, sit with me and tell me all about your training," Sarah invited. She went back to the waterside and dipped her legs in again. Drew put his backpack down and sat next to her. He also dipped his legs into the pond.

"This water is really nice considering how cold it has been," Drew commented.

"So," Sarah said impatiently, "how has your training been these last four months?"

"Well, it's been really hard at times," Drew started. "It is physically taxing, but I have learned so much from Jonathan. He's such a great fighter and knows so much about combat. Even though I've been there for four months straight, I don't think I've learned even a fraction of that Mienshao's knowledge. I'm so glad that he took me in as his student."

"Like, what kind of attacks did you learn?"

"If we get the chance, I'll show them too you. So, what have you been doing?" Drew asked.

"Well, not much, actually," Sarah replied, knowing that what she had been doing wasn't as important. "I've just been doing what I always do. Working for my mother by delivering messages and items to the other two villages. Nothing as interesting as what you've been doing."

"Delivering those things to the other villages is still very important," Drew said with an uplifting tone of voice. "Even if it's not as exciting as what I've been doing, I'd still say it's as important, if not more."

"Maybe…" Sarah doubted that, but didn't say anything. "Why did you decide to come back?"

Drew gave out a small chuckle.

"For your evolution ceremony, of course!" he said. "Well, and also the three village festival. I wouldn't miss those two things for the world. Thankfully, Jonathan gave me leave from training so I could get to both of those things." Drew's facial expression quickly turned to one of somber before saying, "but I guess I'll only get one of those things now."  
"Oh…so you've heard…" Sarah's face grew as sad as Drew's.

"Yeah, Grace told me. It's kinda hard to believe, you know? That someone would just walk into the village and steal only your stones and no one else's."

"I know what you mean…"

"What are you going to do?"

"Well, it's not like I can just go after that ninetails myself. Not only am I not a good fighter, I've rarely been outside this forest. I would be lost out there by myself."  
"Can't you just go out and get new stones?"

Sarah shook her head.

"You see, it's a tradition in this village to bind the Pokemon that will evolve with the stones they will use. Once someone is bound to the stones, they can only use those stones to evolve and none others. It's not something that many Pokemon outside of these villages do."

"That's right," Drew said as he remembered. "You did tell me that. I'm guessing the elder doesn't want to send any warriors because of the Festival, right?" Drew guessed.

"Yeah. They're having a meeting right now to decide what to do."

Sarah felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked from the water to see Drew looking at her in the eyes.

"I'll go after them if no one else will," Drew assured her.

"But…that would mean you would miss the festival," Sarah said with wide eyes.

"I know that," Drew told her, "but getting those stones back for you is much more important than some old festival."

"But it only happens every 50 years!" Sarah said very surprised. "You may never get another chance to participate in it."

"But your evolution only happens once in a lifetime!" Drew rebutted. "If someone doesn't go after that ninetails, then you'll never evolve!"

Sarah stopped and thought about this. Her smile grew larger when she fully processed what Drew had said.

"You would…do that…for me?"

"Of course. I would do anything for my best friend," Drew said as he put one of his hands on his chest.

"Thanks, Drew…" Sarah said quietly.

"No problem." Drew took his hand off of Sarah and looked across the water of the pond. Sarah started to do the same until her stomach rumbled again.

"I've been worrying so much about everything that I have barely been eating," Sarah said, slightly embarrassed. "The sun hasn't been strong enough for me to be able to photosynthesis my energy back."

"Hey, no problem. I actually brought back some berries here in my bag. You want one?" Drew offered while reaching for his backpack."

"I would love one," Sarah happily accepted. Drew open his bag and started to scavenge through it.

"What kind would you like?"

"I don't care."

"A Chesto berry alright?"

"That's fine."

Drew picked out two Chesto berries and passed one of them to Sarah. They both started to eat their berries and quickly finished them. The two of them then enjoyed the tranquility that the quiet lake provided for a few minutes, neither of them saying a word, trying to get their mind off of their current predicament.

"Hey, Sarah?" Drew finally said to get the gloom's attention.

"Mh-hm?" she mumbled back, not taking her eyes of the pond.

"Remember when we used to play here when we were younger?" Drew asked out of nowhere. Sarah bore a questioning look on her face as she looked over to Drew.

"Where did that come from?"

"I don't know," Drew answered with a smile. "I guess just looking at this lake made me reminisce about all the good times we had when we were younger."

Sarah turned back to the lake and joined Drew in his nostalgic trip.

"Yeah, I do," Sarah answered Drew's original question. "That was back when we were just kids and had no care in the world. Don't you wish you could relive those days?"

Drew nodded. "That I do."

After that there was silence again as the two now recalled all the fun times they played together.

"I think we should start to head back," Sarah suggested after they had sat remembering for a good five minutes. "The elder had probably decided what to do by now."

"True," Drew agreed. Sarah slowly climbed to her feet while Drew pushup with his arms and did a backflip onto his feet.

Afterwards, the two headed back towards the village together.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading. If you could tell me how you like the story so far, please do!**


	3. The Only Choice

**Hey guys and welcome to chapter 3. So, here's the deal. I'm thinking about changing the name of this story to something that sounds better, but I don't know what yet, and I was wondering if the few people who are reading this currently have any ideas they'd like to throw at me. So if you have anything you want to suggest, please sent me a PM or review. I'd love it. Anyways, on to the chapter.**

* * *

Sarah and Drew walked back to the village in silence, each of them still looking back at their childhood. The normally ten minute walk felt like nothing more than a few seconds since each of them was so lost in thought.

Once they had returned to the village, Sarah and Drew found that the town was a little bit more lively than it had been a little bit ago. Now that everyone had gotten over the fact that they weren't going to have Sarah's ceremony, they were all preparing to leave for the Three Village Festival. Some were still packing their stuff, while others were going around and getting food from the village's berry fields for the trip. Anyone who wasn't preparing, or was preemptive and had already done so, were now just talking with each other, conversing on how excited they were for the festival. Almost no one seemed to care that Sarah's stones were gone and may never come back.

 _Figures_ , Sarah thought to herself.

The two of them didn't go ten steps inside the village before they saw Grace round the corner in front of them. Her eyes lit up when she spotted Sarah and Drew.

"Ah, perfect timing," Grace started as she balanced her way over to Sarah and Drew, "The elder has made a decision. I was told to find you and bring you to him."

"What was the verdict?" Sarah asked, fearing what it could be.

"I don't know. He didn't tell me," Grace answered. "He just told me to find you and lead you towards him.

"Well…in that case, lead on," Sarah said, knowing that there was no reason to delay the inevitable. Grace nodded and turned back around. She started towards the middle of the village, where the elder had been. Sarah and Drew followed her.

"Oh, Drew, welcome back to the village, by the way," Grace said while they were walking. "You ran off before I was able to tell you that when we first met."

"Thanks," Drew replied with a nod. "It feels good to be back."

Drew and Grace didn't really know each other that well and rarely talked, but they did have a mutual friend in Sarah, so they usually said something when they each saw the other, even if it was just a simple greeting.

"So, anything major change in the village since I've been gone?" Drew asked Sarah.

"Not much, to be honest," Sarah replied, once again feeling insignificant compared to what Drew had been doing.

"Well, did anything exciting happen at all?" Drew questioned.

"No, not really." Sarah racked her brain for something, anything that she could talk about. "Well...there was a fire in the forest east of here about two months ago," Sarah said with an uncaring attitude.

Drew's eyes grew wide when he heard this.

"Really?" he asked in disbelief. "That seems like something important."

"Well, it was two months ago, so everyone has already passed on from it. It didn't damage the forest too much, thankfully."

"How did it start?" Drew continued to ask.

"Who knows?" Sarah said with a shrug. "Most likely some fire type being irresponsible and not caring what their attacks hit and set on fire," she guessed, the resentment very obvious in her voice.

"So how did it get put out?" Drew asked.

"Humans eventually came with their large, red, machines that shoot water. They got it under control in very little time, so the damage was minimal. No one got hurt, as far as we know."

"That's good to hear," Drew said with a relieved smile.

They walked for a about another half a minute before the three of them arrived at the middle of town, where a large, temporary stage had been built for Sarah ceremony. Now that it wasn't going to happen, it was being torn down before everyone left for the festival.

"The elder should be around here somewhere…" Grace said to herself while looking around the area.

"Hey, I've got to go meet some other Pokemon who don't even know I'm back yet." Drew told Sarah before walking away. "Tell me what the verdict is when I get back."

"Who else do you need to meet?" Sarah called out to him.

"Oh you know…Pokemon like…my sister…" Drew stumbled over his words while scratching the back of his head.

"You mean to tell me you went to me before your sister?" Sarah asked with a playful smile.

"Perhaps…" Drew called back with a semi-guilty look on his face. "I'll see you later," he said before turning around and ran away.

 _That Drew…_ Sarah thought, the smile still on her face.

"Ah, there he is," Grace exclaimed when she found the elder in the middle of the deconstructing crowd. She started going towards him, and Sarah followed.

As they approached him, the old vileplume was still talking with two of the other members in his little 'council', a lot of them not present, including Sarah's mother. The elder looked up from his conversation when he spotted Grace and Sarah out of his peripheral vision.

"There you are," he greeted in a less than friendly way. The other Pokemon that were with him looked up to Grace and Sarah as they approached and stopped in front of the elder.

For a few seconds, none of them talked. They stood there in silence, just staring at each other.

Eventually, the elder cleared his throat and then began to speak.

"We, the council and I, have decided that…" the elder stopped as he tried to pick the right words. "...that we are not going to send any warrorers after that ninetails, as the festival is too important to miss," he finished.

That information hit Sarah really hard, like a wave of water, pouring over her, knocking her down on to the floor, and making her tumble around on the ground for a bit.

"Now then, if you excuse me," the elder passed on from the subject rather quickly, "there is something else that needs my attention." With a nod, the elder turned around and walked casually the other way, the few other Pokemon that were with him following close behind.

They didn't even look back once.

Sarah now felt empty, like she was alone in the middle of a large, flat plain, with no one else around. Grace was right next to her, but it sure didn't feel like she was. The psychic type felt distant from her; everything felt distant from her right now.

It was predictable, of course, that the elder wouldn't sent a lot of Pokemon after the thief, since the festival was so important, but Sarah had thought that he would sent a few, at least one, Pokemon after them. But, sadly, that was not the case, and Sarah now did not know what to do.

"Sarah…I," Grace started to comfort her, but Sarah cut her off.

"No, it's fine. It's not your fault," she said with sadness. "I just…need some time alone to think about this," Sarah said before walking away from Grace.

Grace stood there, watching her friend walk away, the gloom's head looking at the ground in sadness. Grace continued to watch until she was out of sight.

"Sarah…" Grace whispered to herself.

* * *

Sarah slowly made her way across the village and to her house: a small wooden, two-roomed, shack. It was very old -built by her great grandfather- but had still held up pretty well. It wasn't the best home, but it was Sarah's home, and that made it more special to her than any other fancy house could offer. Sarah slowly opened the door, and walked into the house, flinging it close once again.

The instant that Sarah closed the door, a pleasant, wafting aroma came from the other end of the room. Sarah looked around to see where the scent was coming from.

The room Sarah had walked into was where most of the important things were, like the fireplace, which was currently ablaze. A small, hollowed stump for keeping food was in the corner, just like Grace's. In front of the fireplace were a few wooden chairs that Grace had crafted for them. A small kettle for cooking was currently on the crackling fire. Sarah's mother was cooking up some late breakfast/early lunch for herself when Sarah walked in. She was stirring up something in the kettle with a wooden ladle. Liza looked over to see who had walked in the door, and her eyes lit up when she recognized who it was.

"Oh, Sarah!" Liza stopped what she was doing and ran over to Sarah. She was about to ask her daughter if she had heard the news, but Sarah's face answered her question for her.

"I'm so sorry, Sarah, I tried to convince them, really I did!" Liza tried to comfort Sarah the best way she could.

"It's alright, mom; it's not your fault," Sarah reassured her mother.

"What are you going to do now?" Liza asked hesitantly.

Sarah breathed a deep sigh. "I…I don't know. I need some time to think."

"Alright," Liza said before going back to the cooking she had been doing, this time stirring the stuff in the kettle noticeable slower. Sarah walked to her right and through a doorway to the only other room of the house.

This room was a lot less decorated. It had two beds made out of leaves in it, one for Sarah, on for her mother. Sarah's bed had a small table next to it which was where she kept her satchel that she used when doing her delivering work. Other miscellaneous things were scattered on the table, like a red scarf that her mother had made her for when it got cold and a few human things that she had collected over the years.

Sarah went and sat on her bed while taking another deep breath. She put her hands in her head and thought about what she was going to do now.

 _I can't let that ninetails take my evolution stones, but going after them by myself is not something I can do either…_ Sara thought, _… right?_

Then, a voice inside her head talked to her.

 _ **Well, you don't really have a choice, do you?**_ the voice told her.

This voice was very sudden, and Sarah was a bit started by it. Sarah didn't know if this voice was her conscience speaking to her, or someone talking to her in her mind, but one thing was sure. The voice was right. If she wanted her stones back, there was only one thing that she could do.

She didn't want to do it. She didn't really even know if she _could_ do it, but she had to at least give it a try. Like the voice said, she didn't really have much of a choice.

Standing up, now with a new purpose in mind, Sarah grabbed her scarf off the table and wrapped it around her neck, letting a little drop off in the back. She grabbed her satchel and put the strap over her head and onto her shoulder. Afterwards, Sarah went back into the main room, where her mother was. She had finished cooking her meal, which happened to be berry soup, and was now eating it in one of the chairs by the fire.

Sarah went over to the stump where they kept all their berries. She started to pick some of them out and put them in her bag.

"Sarah, what are you doing?" Liza asked, looking up from her food.

"The only thing I can do," Sarah replied before stuffing the last berry in her bag that she could. She closed the latch on it and tightened the strap before finishing. "I'm going after that ninetails myself."

Liza was absolutely shocked by this. She put her food down, stood up from her chair and went over to her daughter.

"But, Sarah, you can't!" she protested.

"What else am I supposed to do?" Sarah snapped in a much more antagonistic voice than she had meant it to be. Sarah took a deep breath to calm herself down before continuing. "I know it's really sudden, but I can't just let that thief take my stones, and if no one else will go after them, then I'm forced to do it."

Liza stared at Sarah for a few seconds, before replying quietly, "You're serious, aren't you?"

Sarah nodded her head.

"Alright…" Liza's eyes closed, and she started to think of the implications of this. Afterwards, she looked back up to Sarah, and saw the determination in her eyes. She knew that it would be hard to let her go, but Liza knew that it was the right thing to do.

Liza ran up to Sarah and wrapped her arms around her daughter in a hug. Sarah embraced it, hugging her mother back. The two stood there for a few seconds before Liza detached herself from Sarah. She wiped a tear away from one of her eyes and looked at the ground, not wanting to look at her daughter because it might cause her to cry. Afterwards, they stood there for a few more seconds, neither one of them saying anything.

"Well," Sarah broke the silence, "the longer I wait, the farther that thief is going to be ahead of me, and they already have a large head start. I better get going."

Liza nodded silently, not taking her eyes of the ground.

Sarah double checked that she wasn't forgetting anything, and then walked past her mother and to the door. She opened it and was about to walk out before her mom called her back.

"Sarah?"

"Yeah?" Sarah looked back at her mother from the doorway, who hadn't moved from her spot. Liza looked up from the ground and to Sarah.

"Be safe, okay?" Liza told her daughter.

Sarah gave a nod. "I will, mom." After that, Sarah closed the door.

Liza took a deep breath before going back to the chair and resumed eating her soup like nothing had happened.

* * *

Sarah, now outside her house, took a deep breath of fresh air. Looking around, she saw Pokemon still running around, getting ready for the festival, none of them paying Sarah any mind. _None of them care at all_ , Sarah thought. _I bet none of them will come and help me, especially if it means missing the festival. They probably won't even realize I'm gone until after the festival._

With a hand on her satchel strap, Sarah started off towards the front of the village.

 _Guess that's how it goes_. She thought.

While she walking, Sarah took her time to look at all the buildings and people that she had grown up with around the village. She didn't know how long it would be before she would see all of this again, if ever, so she wanted to spend as much time as she could, just in case this was indeed her last time.

Eventually, Sarah found herself at the entrance of the village. Once she got there, she stopped and took a look at the forest outside of her little town. Even though she had walked the road more times than she could remember for errands, It looked so foreign and unfamiliar, like she had never even seen it before in her life.

Sarah took a deep breath before taking a step outside of the village, her first step on her quest to get her evolution stones back. She didn't know where she was going, she didn't know what she was up against, she didn't know how she was going to get her stones back. But her stones were stolen and no one else was going to get them back for her; she had to do it herself.

Sarah was only able to take that one step, however, before a voice came from behind her.

"You're really doing it, aren't you?" Grace asked. Sarah turned her head around to see the kirlia standing there.

"I don't have a choice," Sarah replied simply, seeing that Grace already knew what she was doing. "I have to do it alone." Grace nodded in understanding. She walked up to the gloom and put her hand on her shoulder.

"No, you're wrong," Grace said without looked at her.

Sarah was confused by this.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Grace smiled, turned to Sarah, and said, "You don't have to do this alone, because I'm coming with you."

Sarah didn't say anything for the first few seconds, letting the information sink in. When she could say something, all it was was one simple, heartfelt word.

"Really?"  
"I have no commitment to this village nor do I care about the festival," Grace replied, "and I can't just let you go out alone with no direction."

"And you would really do this for me?" Sarah asked.

"Of course!" Grace answered.

This response caused Sarah to smile.

"Thanks," she said while giving a nod, and then asked, "Won't you need supplies? I don't know how long we'll be away, but I think it's going to be a while."

Grace nodded, seeing as how she didn't have anything on her currently. "I'll go grab some stuff at my house and be right back," she told Sarah.

"But it's going to take you too long to get to your house and back, isn't it? We need to leave as soon as we can."

"Not if I do this," Grace said with a smile. The kirlia did a little twirl with her arms in the air. A pink glow surrounded her, and then she disappeared, blinking out of existence.

Sarah took a step back, wondering what had happened. Then, she remembered that Grace had the power of teleportation, something she commonly forgot since she rarely used it. A few seconds later, Grace reappeared in the same spot she had disappeared. This time, though, she had her own satchel that she carried just like Sarah's, packed with items for the trip.

 _Wish I could do that_ , Sarah thought to herself.

"Well, ready to go?" Grace asked.

"Uh…yeah," Sarah snapped out of her thoughts and noded. "Let's get going." Sarah turned around and was about to take another step before Grace said something else.

"Hang on, what about Drew?" she asked. "I bet he would be more than happy to come along with us," Grace brought up a good point.

Sarah had already thought of this, and she shook her head.

"Drew's a warrior, and if the elder didn't allow any fighters to go after my stones, then I doubt that Drew will get a free ride."

"Well, what if he…I don't know…snuck out with us?" Grace proposed. Once again, Sarah shook her head.

"I know that he would want to go with us, but it would just feel wrong to ask him to go away from home when he just got back. Besides, he has training that he would need to go back to after the festival is done, which is only two weeks long. Something tells me that it's going to take us longer than that to get my stones back. I don't want him to feel conflicted."

Grace nodded as she understood. "Alright then, let's get going."

"Right," Sarah agreed.

Then the two of the took off, away from the village, and to destiny.

* * *

Drew was now walking around the village, looking for Sarah. He wanted to hear what the elder had decided about that thief. He had looked almost everywhere and still couldn't find her.

It had taken hours for Drew to part from his sister. She talked on and on about everything she had done in the past four months, and once she was done, she wanted to hear about everything Drew had done. And after that, she insisted that Drew stay and show her everything he had learned in his training.

Drew loved her sister for sure, but she sometimes talked way too much.

While looking around, Drew eventually ran across Sarah's mother. She was talking to the elder about something that he couldn't hear from where he was. He walked up to the two of them. Both Liza and the elder looked over and saw Drew approche them.

"Good morning, Drew," Liza said once she saw him. "I wasn't aware you had gotten back yet."

"Morning," Drew greeted back. "I got back a few hours ago. By the way, where's Sarah? I can't find her anywhere."

Liza's face grew somber when he asked this.

"She didn't tell you, did she?"

"Tell me what?" Drew asked, now very worried.

"Because I wouldn't spare any warriors to go after her evolution stones," the elder interjected. "Sarah decided that she was going after them herself. She left the village about two hours ago."

Drew couldn't believe it when he first heard it. When he did get over the fact that Sarah had gone after a potentially dangerous ninetails by herself, he knew what he had to do.

"I'm going after her!" Drew announced before starting to run.

"No you will not!" The elder said in a booming voice. This stopped Drew right in his tracks. "I need all the warriors in this village at the festival, and that means you, too."

"But…" Drew started.

"No excuses." the elder said in a voice that cut off any of Drew's attempts at countering. Afterwards, the elder looked back at Liza. "I have to do some final preparations for moving out to the festival," he said before walked away from the two.

After the elder was gone, Liza walked over to Drew.

"I'm sure that Sarah will be fine," she said, but not fully believing it herself.

"Um…yeah…right…" Drew said slowly. He looked off into the distance.

"Sarah…" he whispered.

* * *

Sarah and Grace had been traveling all day and the sun was now setting. However, even though they had traveled a long ways, they still weren't even out of the forest yet.

Grace helped Sarah up a steep part of a hill that they were climbing by reaching down her hand for her. Sarah took it and Grace slowly pulled her up onto a much less steep, almost flat, part of it. Once she was up, Sarah decided that she would need a break from the climbing they had been doing, and sat down on the ground. Grace took this time to look around at the scenery that they could see from up here.

"Hey, look over there," Grace pointed at something in the distance. Sarah mustered all the strength she could and pulled herself up off the ground and over to Grace to see where she had pointed.

In the distance, below them, Sarah saw a large clearing in the trees where many houses and huts lay. A lot of lights and decorations were being put up, and a lot of people were running around, preparing food, games, and a lot of other stuff that you would expect at a very large party.

"That's the village that's holding the Three Village Festival," Sarah remarked.

"Indeed," Grace said, putting her hand back to her side.

The two of them stood there for a few seconds, just watching the sight of the festival in the dying sunlight.

"Are you sure that you don't want to go?" Grace asked Sarah out of the blue.

"What?"

"The festival. I could go and get your stones back, and you could stay here and enjoy the festivities. It might very well be your only chance to ever participate in it."

Sarah thought about it, but in the end shook her head.

"No, I couldn't ask you to do that. Besides, the festival would mean nothing to me if I didn't know what was happening to my evolution stones." Sarah looked up to the sky. "Speaking of which, let's try to cover a little bit more ground before the sun fully sets."

After saying this, Sarah continued to walk up the hill and away from the village.

Grace stood there, staring out across the landscape for a few more seconds, before letting out a small smile.

"I knew you would say that," she said before turning around and rejoined Sarah, both of them continuing their way over the hill, and into the unknown.

* * *

 **I didn't mean for this chapter to be this long, but this marks the end of the expositional chapters. We are now officially to the rising action. Thanks for reading.**


	4. Welcome to Ruimi: Part 1

**Hello, and welcome to chapter 4. I do hope that you are enjoying this story. I realize that I might not have developed the characters enough in the opening chapters, so I'll try and give them some more backstory from now on. Anyway, enjoy Chapter 4.**

* * *

Grace and Sarah had slept outside that night. They had made some quick bedding from surrounding debris that they found. It wasn't the most comfortable, but it did its job.

After they got a decent rest, Sarah and Grace got up early in the morning. If they wanted to catch this ninetales thief, then they needed to cover as much ground as they could in one day.

As Sarah started to slowly shake off the morning drowsiness, she took in the morning atmosphere. She inhaled a deep breath of the air, and then slowly let it out.

Morning was one of Sarah's favorite times of the day. Everything about it felt fresh and new. The sunrises, the elegant and beautiful wind blowing across her skin (even if it was quite chilly today), the smell of the new and crisp air all around her, and the sound of the birds chirping through the forest. It was all of that which made the morning so majestic, and Sarah loved it all.

Afterwards, Sarah and Grace headed out again.

"I'd say that we only have a little bit more walking until we're finally out of the forest," Grace projected as they started to travel. "Once we're out, we can truly start our search for that ninetales."

"Right…" Sarah trailed off. "So, once we get out of the forest, you said that we're going to a small town?" she asked to make sure she had gotten the plan right.

"Indeed," Grace affirmed with a nod of her head. "There, we can ask around to see if anyone has spotted a ninetales who was carrying your stones. Afterall, they would be very hard to hide."

After walking in silence for a few more minutes, Sarah spoke up again.

"So this town we're going to…have you been there before?"

"I have. It was actually where I lived before I moved to the forest."

"Oh really?" Sarah asked. She had never asked Grace about her life before the forest. It had just never come up. Sarah knew she had moved into the forest from somewhere outside of it, but she never knew from where.

"Yes, though I doubt anyone still remembers me. I wasn't that known around there."

"Anything else I need to know about it?" Sarah continued the conversation.

"Well, it used to be a small human-built settlement that people would stop at to replenish their supplies and stay for the nights. However, it didn't get much business and had to be closed down and everyone had to move. After all the humans left, Pokemon started to inhabit it, and it's been like that to this day."

"Interesting."

And after that, they were silent once more, Sarah lost in thought and Grace focusing on how to get out of the forest.

Eventually, after more walking, the trees started to get more sparse, signaling that the end of the forest was near. Indeed, as Grace and Sarah continued, they finally made it to a place where the trees stopped growing and where the forest ended.

"Alright," Grace said with triumph in her voice. "We've made it to the end." She ran ahead of Sarah and burst through the treeline of the forest with a balletic leap, landing on the ground just as elegantly.

The first thing that Grace did was close her eyes and take a deep breath of the morning air.

"It's been so long since I've been outside of the forest, I'd forgotten how wonderful it felt," Grace said, partly to Sarah and partly to herself. "I love all the open areas and how you don't feel crowded all the time."

Opening her eyes, Grace saw in front of her a large, grassy field blowing slightly in the wind, causing all of the blades to sway gently, but also rhythmically, in a melodic fashion. Grace took a second to stare at it all.

"The forest has its charms," Grace continued to talk, not taking her eyes off the plain of grass, "but this already feels better than the forest ever could."

Grace did a spin on her feet and turned around.

"Wouldn't you agree, Sarah?" she asked.

But Sarah was not behind her like she had thought. Sarah was still back at the edge of the forest, with a hand up against a tree, with her eyes glued to the distance. Grace bore a look of confusion on her face.

"Sarah?" Grace called out to her.

"It's just that…" Sarah started, her eyes fixed on the horizon, "...I've never been out of the forest before." Sarah took her gaze off of the sky and onto the ground. "This will be the first step I take in my life outside of my home."

Grace's confused look was replaced with a smile. She walked back over to Sarah. The gloom looked up from the ground and at Grace.

"Come on," Grace outstretched her hand for Sarah to grab. "I'll show you around," she said with a bit of humor in her voice.

Sarah stood still for a second before giving Grace a nod and grabbing her hand. Grace pulled Sarah ever so slightly towards her, encouraging her, but not forcing her, to take a step.

Slowly, Sarah lifted her foot and then slowly placed it down again, outside of the forest. Her first step outside of her home territory.

Then Sarah took another small step, and then another, this one a little larger. Then another, a bit bigger, and another, larger still, until Sarah was now walking in stride. Grace eventually let go of Sarah's hand and let her walk on her own.

"One main difference between the forest and other biomes is that there are a lot fewer trees," Grace continued with her playful gag. Sarah didn't pay her too much mind, as she was still focused on the nature around her. Grace stopped walking and so did Sarah. Grace pointed towards the east.

"Well, the town is just a little more that way. We'll be there soon," she told Sarah.

"Lead the way then," Sarah said with a sight nod. Grace returned that nod and started walking again, and Sarah followed her.

* * *

The large, grassy hills sloped up and down as far as the eye could see. The ninetales looked out across them before breathing out a sigh. This part of the journey was going to take some work to get through. These hills were famous for being very tedious and tiring and would take a lot, if not all, of his energy to get past them. The ninetales had, however, already made a distraction in case someone had decided to follow him, so time wasn't going to be a problem.

The ninetales looked back behind him to make sure the thing he was carrying was still there. On his back, a small rucksack lay, which was tied around his neck so it wouldn't fall off. Inside the bag were two evolution stones, a sun stone and a leaf stone, both giving off a faint glow of light. It was very unlikely that they would have fallen off his back without him noticing, but he made sure anyway. This was a task that he could not mess up, so he had to be extra careful and cover all the bases.

The ninetales turned his head back around and looked out across the hills in front of him. Half of him felt awful for stealing Sarah's stones, but the rational side reassured him that it was for the best. He quickly pushed that thought aside and focused on that task at hand. He would have time to contemplate that kind of stuff later.

Taking a deep breath, the ninetales started off towards the hilly countryside.

The atmosphere of the town was so radically different from the village that Sarah was used to. The way that the buildings were constructed, so tall and menacing, the way the whole town rang of morning chatter, and even the way that it smelled-it was all so wildly new to Sarah, and she didn't much like it.

Right outside of the town was a sign that had human letters written on it. Sarah couldn't read what it said, so she asked Grace.

"It says, 'Welcome to Ruimi Town'," she answered.

"Ruimi Town, huh?" Sarah repeated it to herself. "How did it get that name?"

"Beats me," Grace said honestly.

"Hey, Grace?"

"Yeah?"

"Where did you learn to read?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, from…a friend…" Grace left it at that.

"Alright," Sarah decided not to probe. _Wish I could do that,_ she thought to herself.

The town was set up so that the main road went through all the big stuff in town, and side roads branched off to go to other places. Sarah took note of many human-built buildings that Pokemon were coming in and out of, obviously having been repurposed since the humans had left. What the buildings were, however, she didn't know, as she couldn't read the signs. Then again, it was most likely that none of the other Pokemon here could either and just had memorised which building was which. Other Pokemon had made their own stalls and were selling this and that to passing Pokemon.

As the two continued to walk through the city, Sarah noticed many different kinds of Pokemon that she had never seen before in the forest. She spotted two Pokemon that were unknown to her, talking to each other. The first one had four legs and a fire-like mane that was blown by the wind. The second one was much smaller and had only two legs, and its body was mostly a yellow color.

"What are those Pokemon?" Sarah asked, sure that Grace would know that answer.

"The one on the right is a ponyta," Grace replied, "a fire type from the Kanto region. The one on the left is scraggy, a fighting/dark type from the Unova region."

Sarah let out a smile before turning her head to Grace.

"You sure know your stuff," she commented.

"I study a lot in my free time," Grace admitted. Sarah turned back around to see a blue, cat-like Pokemon with long ears, buying something at one of the street vendors.

"And that one?" she asked.

"A Meowstic, a psychic type from the Kalos region," Grace once again answered.

Just then, a small and round, pink Pokemon with green leaves coming out of it slowly flew by them, the wind carrying it.

"What about that one?" Sarah kept up her questioning.

"Hoppip, a grass/flying type from Johto."

Sarah found this all very exciting. She looked around the street for more Pokemon she didn't know.

"Who's that?" Sarah pointed to a large black and blue Pokemon that walked past her.

"That's a luxray, an electric type from Sinnoh."

Sarah whipped her head around to try and find some more.

"How about th-"

"Sarah, watch out!" Grace interrupted her. Sarah wondered what she was supposed to watch out for until she looked straight in front of her. She was only able to see the glimpse of someone before they ran into her, knocking both of them to the ground.

"Oww," Sarah moaned while rubbing her head.

"Sarah, are you alright?" Grace ran up to check up on her.

"Yeah…I'm fine," she looked back at Grace and answered.

"I'm so sorry," the other Pokemon said, his voice ringing out against the the common chatter of the crowds, "I should have looked where I was going. Are you alright?" he also asked.

Sarah turned back around to look at who had ran into her. He had already gotten up from the fall and was now standing in front of Sarah.

The Pokemon in front of her was another one that Sarah did not recognize. Most of his body was yellow except for his feet and hands as well as the top of his head, which were black. His orange eyes glittered ever so slightly in the sun.

But those things were not what caught Sarah's attention. No, it was the large, long, narrow, jaw that extended from the back of his head; that's what caught her attention.

She was so distracted by it that she almost didn't see the hand that was outstretched to help her up.

"Y…yeah…I'm alright," Sarah responded as she took the hand. The other Pokemon helped and pulled Sarah up to her feet.

"I'm sorry about that," the Pokemon said again. He went over and picked up a small, brown box that he had dropped when they had ran into each other. He hoisted it up into his arms and went back over to Grace and Sarah. "Welp, I gotta go," he said, and then with a nod, added, "see you around!"

And with that, the Pokemon ran off in the opposite direction that Grace and Sarah were going. Sarah watched him go until he rounded a corner into one of the side streets, out of sight.

"Who was that?" Sarah asked, her curiosity not fazed by what just happened.

"Mawile, a steel/fairy type from the Hoenn region," Grace answered, also still processing what had just happened.

Sarah continued to stare down the street where the mawile had gone. She found it odd that he had kept apologizing to her, even though Sarah was obviously the one in the wrong, as she was the one that hadn't been looking where she was going.

"He seemed…friendly," Sarah commented.

Grace let out a sigh before replying, "That's just what he wants you to think."

Sarah was slightly confused by this. She turned around and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Mawile is known as the deceiver Pokemon, and rightly so," Grace started to explain. "They may seem nice, and act good in public, but that is only a ruse to get you to trust them. Once you let your guard down, they strike you, either physically or emotionally, and then just leave you." Grace obviously had resentment in her voice as she said this.

"But, why would they want to do that?" Sarah asked.

"For different reasons. Sometimes, they steal your things when you're not looking. Sometimes, they just do it for fun and to see the expression on your face. Sometimes both," Grace added to the end.

"That's awful," Sarah said. She looked back down the street even though that mawile was long gone. "But he didn't even seem that bad."

"They never do," Grace said in a depressed tone of voice. "They never do."

After a few seconds of silence between the two, Grace spoke up again.

"Anyway, let's get going. I know of a place where there will be a lot of people gathered. We can ask around there if anyone had seen a ninetales go through here.

"Right," Sarah agreed.

After more walking through the town, the two arrived in front of a semi-large building. Sarah looked up as it towered above her. Human letters were adorned above the door, but Sarah couldn't read them.

"What's this place?" Sarah turned her head to asked Grace.

"It's what humans call a coffee shop," She responded. "A lot of Pokemon gather here and talk. I bet we can get some information from some of the Pokemon in here."

"Alright," Sarah said. She and Grace slowly opened the door and entered into the building.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading. I hope that it won't take as long to get the next chapter out, but I can't assure anything. I would love it if you told me what you thought of the story.**


	5. Welcome to Ruimi: Part 2

**Hello, and welcome to Chapter 5. If you didn't notice, I changed the name of the story, though it will only affect people who are keeping up with this when I post it. I like it a lot better. Anyway, on to the story.**

* * *

Compared to the other buildings in the city, the coffee shop wasn't too large. It was only the equivalent size of one or two of Sarah's huts back home. Strung throughout the shop were tables and chairs, and almost all of them were filled up with Pokemon. This was apparently a very popular spot.

Near the back of the shop was a counter where a gardevoir was. He was making coffee for Pokemon in small cups, preparing them from different machines. It was obvious why he was doing this job, as very few Pokemon could work human equipment.

"I wonder where they got all this stuff from," Sarah thought out loud. "They couldn't have made it themselves, right?"

"No, most likely it was just left here from the previous owner," Grace guessed. "After all, it's not like the humans that owned this place would have taken all this stuff with them." Grace took a deep breathe. "Anyway, do you want some coffee?" she asked.

"Maybe?" Sarah said, unsure. "I don't actually know what that is."

"It's a drink humans invented," Grace explained. "It's got something they call 'caffeine' in it. It will help wake you up."

"Really?" Sarah marvels. "Wow, you sure know a lot of things about humans," she commented. Yes, Sarah knew that since she grew up and lived in a Pokemon village all her life that she was mostly ignorant about humans, but it seemed to her that Grace knew a lot more than any wild Pokemon would know.

 _Wish I could know all that._

"Well, you know, I…uh…read a lot," Grace said hastily. "Now come on, do you want some coffee?" she changed the subject quickly.

"Um…sure." Sarah gave a shrug, not really caring either way. "Do you have the money for it?"

"Of course. I took all the money I had for this trip, and they take human money here anyways."

"Where did you human currency?" Sarah asked.

"I…found it," she said simply. "Now, find us a table, and I'll get the coffee." Grace quickly walked away from Sarah and up to the counter where the gardevoir was.

Sarah stared at Grace with a quizzical look, but it soon wentaway as she passed it off.

The gloom started to walk around the shop and try to find some empty seats. Sadly, however, there weren't any open.

 _Busy place_ , she thought to herself. _Guess we'll have to go outside._

Sarah was about to give up when she noticed two Pokemon get up from their window seats and leave. She made sure that no one else was waiting for a seat before she snagged them. After all, she didn't want to be rude.

By the time Sarah was able to secure a seat, Grace had just gotten their coffee. She walked over to the table and set Sarah's cup down next to her.

"Try it," she motioned with her hand to the gloom while slipping into one the empty chair opposite the table. Sarah timidly took the cup and examined it first. It certainly did look like something a human would make. She wasn't sure how she felt, drinking a human made beverage, but she thought that she would at least try it. Sarah took a deep breath before taking a small sip of the human concoction.

After much internal struggle, Sarah came to the verdict that the coffee was 'okay'.

It had a very bitter taste, but it also contained an aftertaste that was a little less bitter, and tasted a lot better than the initial flavor. It wasn't the best thing that she had, but it certainly wasn't the worst.

"What do you think?" Grace asked after Sarah had time to taste it.

"It's…alright," Sarah concluded.

With that out of the way, Grace started to talk about something else. "So, Sarah, how many berries did you pack for the journey?"

Sarah found this question a bit odd.

"Um…all that I could carry. Why do you ask?"

"I wanted to gauge how much food we have. How many is 'all you could carry'?" Grace asked again.

"Let me check." Sarah opened her satchel and counted up all the berries.

"Four oran berries, two pecha berries, and one rawst berry," Sarah counted up.

"That's what I thought," Grace said with a nod. "If we are going to be chasing this ninetales down for a while, that certainly will not last us the trip. Or at least, me the trip," Grace added, adding in the fact that Sarah can just get her energy from the sun

Grace got out of her chair and took her cup off the table. "I'm going to see if anyone around here sells food, as we'll be needing as much as we can get."

"Right," Sarah agreed. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, that won't be necessary. What you can do, however, is ask around if anyone saw a ninetales come through here and where he or she went."

"Um…yeah," Sarah agreed quietly. "I can do that."

"Good, I'll be back as soon as I get enough berries," Grace said before turning back around and leaving the coffee shop.

Sarah really didn't feel like talking to random strangers right now. At other times, maybe, but with all that had been happening as of late, she wasn't in the mood. She was going to wait a little bit before she tried asking anyone; build up the courage to.

The gloom took another sip of her coffee and looked out the window of the shop. So many different Pokemon were passing by in the street. Sarah looked out at them, just watching them pass by. She didn't know over half of them, (heck, over 80 percent of them), but she still liked to watch all of them going this way and that. Even though she was one, it still amazed her that there were so many different kinds of Pokemon, everyone being so unique and different.

Out of all the ones she didn't know, one of them caught her eye. It was a small Pokemon that had a shiny red coat. She had six small tails, each one of them perfect in length and equal to the other five. She wasn't very tall, but she wasn't all the short either. Something about her struck Sarah's attention.

 _That one looks familiar,_ Sarah thought to herself, _Do I know that one?_

The Pokemon was looking around at the different shops, obviously just as new to this place as Sarah was.

 _Hang on a second…_ , Sarah racked her memory for the name. _Yeah, I do remember this Pokemon. What was it's name?_

The Pokemon continued down the road, not knowing that she was being watched by Sarah.

Sarah continued to search her brain for the answer.

"Vulpix! That's it!" she finally blurted out triumphantly.

Quickly, Sarah looked around the room to make sure no one heard her random outcry. Thankfully, everyone else in the shop was either too loud or too busy to notice or care.

Sarah felt quite proud of herself for remembering that, even though it wasn't all that hard nor was it very impressive.

Sarah turned back to window to try and get another look at that Pokemon. Sadly, she had already moved on, and Sarah could no longer see her from her seat. She thought about running after her, but decided that it wasn't worth it.

 _Man, now how did I know who that Pokemon was?_ Sarah said inside her mind. She vaguely remembered the name, but now she couldn't remember where she had learned it.

 _Hang on…,_ she thought, _maybe… I think I remember. It was from a long time ago. Yeah, now I know. How could I have forgotten?_

* * *

Darkness.

That was all the he felt. It was all that he saw. It was all that he smelled. It was all that he heard, and it was all that he tasted.

Only darkness was present.

After a few seconds of complete and under darkness, the Pokemon thought that he heard something in the distance. It was so faint that he thought he had might of imagined it. But it came again, and this time he was sure he heard it. He strained to listen to the noise. It sounded like someone talking, but he could only make out bit and pieces of what they were saying.

"...ra…, -an you p… me th…o-an be...y?" said a voice that sounded kind of feminine.

Eventually, the Pokemon realised that everything was so dark because his eyes were closed. He slowly opened them, and was greeted by a bright light shining on them. He quickly shut them, as they were unready to be opened. He was, however, slowly coming back to reality. He could now hear the voices clearly.

"Of course, mom," another, young, female voice rang out. He heard some footsteps near him and some other miscellaneous sounds he didn't know what were without context. He wanted to know what was going on, so he tried to open his eyes again. This time, the light was a lot dimmer, or at the least, felt less bright. He opened his eyes fully and took in his surroundings.

He was currently in some sort of hut that was made out of wood, with the floor being completely made up of dirt. Many other things were in the house that you would expect to be there, like a fireplace, a place for cooking, and the like.

There were two other Pokemon inside the hut. There was a bellossom, who was mixing some berries into a bowl and behind her was an a Pokemon that he recognized as an oddish. Both of them weren't looking at him and hadn't noticed that he had woken up.

He tried to move one of his legs, but it wouldn't move regularly. He looked down and saw a white cast covering his red fur. He looked all over his body for anymore bandages or casts, but none others was present. His fur was, however, mangled and he had a few cuts and bruises all across his body.

He suddenly felt something in his throat and instinctively coughed. Both of the other Pokemon looked over to him when he did.

"Oh, look who's awake," the bellossom said in a sweet tone. She picked up the bowl that she had been stirring and laid it next to him. "It's berry stew," she explained, "It will help you regain your strength."

The Pokemon on the ground still didn't know where he was and couldn't remember anything clearly, but his stomach told him he was hungry, so he accepted the food with a nod. He took a sip of it to taste it. The stew tasted a lot better than he had expected, so he started to gulp it down with gusto. In no time, the stew was all gone and the bowl was empty.

"Hungry, are we?" the bellossom said with a smile. "Do you want another?"

He didn't feel like talking, so he nodded his head rapidly. He didn't want to come across as gluttonous, but currently, he was famished.

The bellossom went over to a tree stump in the corner of the hut. She took a peek into it, and a look of sadness covered her face.

"Oh dear, it seems I don't have enough berries," she said with empathy.

The Pokemon was thoroughly depressed by this. He had really wanted another one.

When the bellossom saw his face and how sad he was, she thought about what to do. The grass type looked up to the ceiling and put her hand to her chin while she was thinking.

"Well, I guess I can go over and borrow some from Charlotte," she mused to herself. "Yes, that's what I'll do."

After she had decided this, the bellossom turned to the oddish, who was looking at the ground, probably daydreaming.

"Sarah," the bellossom called to get her attention. The oddish's head shot up.

"Yeah?"

"Will you please stay here with our guest while I go out and get the berries?"

"Of course, mom!" Sarah responded enthusiastically, obviously wanting to serve her mother in any way.

"Alright, good. I'll be back as fast as I can," the bellossom told Sarah. She took a basket that was near the door before walking out of the door.

After the door had closed, the hut was silent.

At least for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry, but I have to ask," Sarah blurted out in the silence. "What kind of Pokemon are you? I've never seen your species before."

The other Pokemon was a bit surprised by her outburst. "Who me?" he asked rhetorically, the first words coming out of his lips since he woke up. _Of course you, you idiot,_ he thought to himself, _there's no one else here!_

"I"m a vulpix," he explained.

"Whoa…cool," Sarah said simply. "What's your name?"

"Um…Xavier," the vulpix replied. Even though he memory was foggy, he could still clearly remember his name.

"Xavier, huh? That's an odd name," Sarah commented. A worried look went over her face. "Not-not that it's a bad name or anything," she added quickly afterwards, not wanting to give off the wrong impression.

"No, it's fine," Xavier responded in a calm voice and a smile. "I get that a lot. Um, Sarah was it?"

"Yup," she replied with an over exaggerated nod.

"So, Sarah, can you tell me what happened and how I got injured? My memory is still a bit foggy."

Sarah tilted her head to the side.

"Really? You can't remember? We were hoping that you would tell us what happened. We found you lying on the ground a little ways from our village on a river bank. You were injured, so we took you back here and patched you up. Do you really not remember anything?"

"Well…" Xavier paused to think. "I do remember a little, but it's all blurry. I think we were attacked by some kind of bird Pokemon. I remember that I tried to run, but ended up falling into a river. Then I woke up here." Xavier shook his head. "I don't exactly remember."

"Hang on-'we'?" Sarah questioned.

"Yeah, me and my older brother," Xavier answered. His eyes widened when the obvious hit him. "Hang on, where's my brother?" he asked, the panic rising his voice. He looked around, but Sarah and him were the only ones in the hut. The vulpix tried to get up, but crumbed back to the ground when his injured leg burst with pain.

"Hey, you need to stay still," Sarah said and ran over to the fallen fire type.

Xavier ignored the pain. It wasn't important right now. "Where is he?!" he demanded in a much more agonizing voice than Sarah was expecting.

"I…I don't know!" Sarah said in a scared tone, taking a few steps back. "You were the only one that we found!"

"Well, I'm going out to find him!" Xavier announced. "He can't be that far out!" He tried to get up again, but to no avail and fell onto the dirt. Without one of his legs functioning properly, it was very hard to move.

"But you really need to rest," Sarah pleaded. "You can't go anywhere with that leg!"

"Yes, I can," Xavier replied defiantly. Once more, he tried to get up and move. He was able to talk a few steps this time before he fell to the ground, grunting in the pain from his leg.

"No, you're not going anywhere!" a voice came from the door to the hut. Sarah and Xavier looked to the door. The bellossom from earlier was standing there, with a basket full of berries in her hand. She came in and put the basket full of berries on the ground before running over to where the vulpix was laying on the ground. "You need to keep off that leg."

"But my brother is out there!" Xavier kept arguing. "He could be lost or injured!"

"You'll get lost or even more injured if you try to find him when you're like this," the bellossom rebutled. "You need to get some rest," she stated firmly.

"But I-"

"No. You are staying here and that's final," she sealed the argument. Xavier could tell she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Al-alright," Xavier finally conceded. Even though he really wanted to go and make sure his brother was fine, she did have a point. He wasn't in the condition to do it. Besides, his brother could probably take care for himself. He was a better fighter than Xavier.

Xavier got back up and slowly hobbled back over to the bed that the two grass types had made for him. He layed down and got comfortable. Afterall, he was going to be in here for a while while his leg healed.

"So, do you still want some more berry stew?" the bellossom asked, all the firmness from her voice gone.

"Yes please," Xavier replied. He had completely forgot about the stew in his haste to find his brother.

"Sarah," the bellossom called out to her daughter.

"Yeah?"

"It's a nice day outside. Why do you go outside and play with Drew?"

"Sure!" Sarah responded joyfully. She didn't waste any time and ran outside of the door, gone within seconds.

The bellossom chuckled a little at this. She didn't say anything more, but continued to make some more berry stew.

* * *

 _Wow, that was so many years ago_ , Sarah thought to herself. She took another sip from her coffee. _It must have been…I don't even know how long ago._

"Excuse me," someone said behind Sarah, "but all the other tables are filled up. Do you mind if I sit here?"

"Not at all," Sarah said without giving it a second thought. She didn't even turn around to see who had asked this. She heard the Pokemon pull up a chair and sit down at the table.

 _Those sure were the days._ She continued to think. _I had nothing to do and no problems to solve. Man, wonder where Xavier is now. Hope he's doing well_.

"Hey, wait a second," the voice came from behind Sarah again. This time, she turned her head around and saw the same mawile that she had knocked down in the street sitting in the chair.

"You're the girl I ran into earlier," the mawile said to her. "Heh, I'm still sorry about that," he said while rubbing the back of his head out of embarrassment.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Sarah replied. "It was my fault, not yours. I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Well, neither was I," he replied, still slightly embarrassed. "I guess it was a little bit of both our faults." The mawile recomposed himself before continuing. "I don't believe I've introduced myself yet. My name is Luke."

"Sarah."

"A pleasure, Sarah," Luke said with a slight bow. He was being way more polite than Sarah would have expected, especially with what Grace had told her a little bit ago.

"So…you're a mawile, right?" Sarah asked, making sure she was right.

"Yes, that I am," Luke replied with confidence. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I just…uh, don't know very many of the different types of Pokemon, and I'm trying to learn them."

Luke noded. "Fair enough."

"And that thing on the back of your head," Sarah continued with her questions, "what is it exactly?"

Luke blinked a few times in response to the question.

"I'm sorry, that was rude to say, wasn't it," Sarah apologized.

"Oh, no. Not at all," Luke reassured her, the smile on his face showing that he didn't mind it. "This?" the jaw on the back of his head lifted up and snapped twice. "Although it may look it, this isn't actually jaw technically. It doesn't connect to my stomach, so I can't eat anything with it. I mostly use it to intimidate opponents, use in self-defence, you know, that kind of stuff.

"I see," Sarah marvaled. _It would be cool if I had something like that_.

"So, where are you heading, if you don't mind my asking?" Luke continued the conversation.

"Heading?" Sarah repeated.

"Yeah. I assume that you're just passing through here, most Pokemon do after all. This is a pit stop city pretty much. I was wondering where you were going."

"Well, we…" Sarah paused to think. They were going after that ninetales, sure, but they didn't know where they had gone. She was supposed to ask around to see if anyone had seen him.

 _Oh, right!_

"Hey, um, I know this is sudden, but see, we're chasing after a ninetales that took something important to me. By any chance, did you see a one pass through this town?"

"A ninetales, huh?" Luke thought about it. "Well, sure. I saw one right outside of town."

"Really?" Sarah's spirit was lifting. They might actually have a lead on where her thief could be. She put her coffee down on the table to pay full attention to Luke.

"Yeah. He was carrying a bag of sorts. The bag had something glowing in it, but I didn't pay him much mind because I needed to deliver that package you saw me with."

Sarah practically stood up in her seat in anticipation. "Where was he going?" she asked with excitement in her voice. Once she realized how worked over she was getting over it, however, Sarah quickly calmed down and sheepishly got back in her seat.

Luke made a small chuckle at this. He liked this girl's enthusiasm.

"He looked like he was heading to Olivine City, where I came from,"

"Where's Olivine City?"

"It's to the northwest of here."

"That's awesome! I've got to go tell Grace!" Sarah exclaimed. She jumped out of her seat and ran out the door of the shop, completely forgetting about her coffee. A second later, Sarah popped back into the shop.

"Hey, thanks for the information!" she said hastily.

"No problem. Glad I could help," Luke replied. Sarah ran back outside once more after she had given her thanks.

Luke couldn't help but smile at this.

"She's got spirit," he commented to himself, "I'll give her that."

* * *

 **Thanks for reading. Tell me what you think of the new name.**


	6. A Mawile and a Miracle

**Hello, and welcome to chapter 6. So first off, I understand that you have to suspend your disbelief of this story some, as it seems unlikely that Pokemon would not only be able to take over a previously human-owned town, but also run an economy in it. I had always thought that Pokemon were as smart as humans, even not in the PMD world. So to me, this idea doesn't seem all the far fetched. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Sarah ran out of the coffee shop with lots of energy. She couldn't believe that she had found out where the ninetails had gone, and that easily, too. She had to find Grace and tell her. Sarah knew that she would be thrilled by this news as much as Sarah had been.

Right when she got outside, a gust of wind made Sarah's red scarf slip from around her lower body and flutter to the ground. She had to stop all of the momentum she had to go and pick her scarf back up. Sarah thought she had tightened it enough so it wouldn't fall off, but it must have gotten loose by her spastic activity after she heard where the ninetales had went. Kneeling down, Sarah picked up her scarf, which was slightly dirty now. She brushed off as much dirt as she could before wrapping it around herself once again, this time making sure to tighten it. She wouldn't want it to fall off again, especially when she was in the streets surrounded by other Pokemon.

After this, Sarah started to run through the crowded street with her scarf flowing behind her. Sarah looked left, right, and through the crowds of people to try and find her psychic friend. She weaved in between many different Pokemon, some of whom turned their heads and wondered why the gloom would be running that fast. In the end, however, they decided it wasn't important, and they continued on with what they were doing prior.

 _Let's see...Grace said she was going to go and buy some food for the trip._ Sarah thought. _Let me look around for some shops; maybe Grace will be there._

After about half a minute more of running, Sarah made it back to where some of the market stalls that they had passed earlier were. Sarah stopped to take a thorough look around to see if Grace was anywhere around here.

It was hard to see with all the Pokemon in the streets, but after some careful examining, Sarah was able to find Grace on the other side of the street, walking back towards the way Sarah had come.

 _She must be coming back to the coffee shop,_ Sarah thought. It was only logical, as that was the last place Grace had seen Sarah. Making sure not to hit anybody, Sarah carefully made her way through the Pokemon on the street and got to the other side.

Grace looked over to her left and saw Sarah running up to her. She was surprised to see Sarah out here.

"Oh, Sarah, there you are," Grace said as if she had been looking for her. Sarah stopped just in front of the Emotion Pokemon, making sure that she was out of the way of everyone in the street. "I was able to get some more food for the trip," Grace continued. "We should have enough to last the two of us for quite some time." Grace stopped momentarily, as her expression changed from a neutral one to one of excitement. "But more importantly, I was able to find out where the ninetales that took your stones went!"

"Really? I was too!" Sarah exclaimed. Both of them couldn't take it anymore, so they shouted out at the same time.

"He's heading to Olivine City!"

"He's heading off to Rock Cave!"

A few seconds of silence passed between the two of them.

"What?" Grace asked, confused as to what Sarah said.

"I…said he's heading off to Olivine City," she reiterated, a bit confused herself.

"Are you sure?" Grace asked with her head cocked. "I heard from the merchants here that the ninetales was heading off to the Rock Cave a little bit to the Northeast of here. Where did you hear that he was going to Olivine City?"

"Well, you see, the mawile that ran into me earlier, we found each other back in the coffee shop. He told me that he saw him carrying my stones and heading to Olivine City to the Northeast of here."

"You meet up with the mawile again?"

"Yeah, his name's Luke. He's a really nice guy."

Grace's expression changed drastically, her cheerful attitude from earlier gone. "Come on and walk with me," she motioned with her hand.

"Grace, what's wrong?" Sarah asked as she noticed Grace's solemn expression. The two of them got into a slow stride before Grace answered.

"Sarah, do you remember what I told you about mawile?" Grace started off.

"Um…yeah, I guess I do," Sarah answered. "You said that they weren't to be trusted because all they would do is deceive you."

"Then, why do you think this mawile is any different?" Grace said, her voice rising in tone.

"Well…" Sarah thought about it. Why did she think that? "I dunno, I thought that he was acting so polite that he couldn't possibly be as bad as you said."

"But that's just it! He wants you to think that."

"Okay, but what advantage would he have to trick us into going the wrong way?" Sarah rebutled.

"I don't know, maybe to attack us when no one is looking and/or try to steal our stuff. All I know is that it can only be bad. "

Grace took a moment to recompose herself and quiet down, as some people who had passed by them were starting to stare.

"Sarah, you don't know what I know. I promise you that he's up to no good," Grace said in a much more gentle voice than before.

"But he doesn't seem like that bad of a guy," Sarah kept pushing. "Maybe the merchants were the ones who were wrong. I really don't think Luke would be trying to trick us."

Grace didn't say anything at first. She stopped walking, and Sarah stopped with her. She put her hand close to her chest as if she was thinking about something deeply.

"Grace, are you alright?" Sarah asked, concerned for her friend.

"I thought the same thing," Grace finally spoke in a barely audible voice. When she looked over to Sarah, the gloom could see an emotion in her eyes.

Hurt. Grace looked hurt. Not physically, but deeply emotionally.

"I thought the same thing, Sarah," the kirlia repeated. "There was a point in my life where I, too, thought that everyone else was wrong when they told me not to trust mawiles." Grace took a breath before continuing, her eyes now looked like they were distant, focusing on something other than Sarah and everything around her, very lost in thought. "I had to learn the hard way that everyone was right." Grace came back to reality as she snapped out of her thoughts. "Sarah?"

"Yes, Grace," Sarah responded with an equally soft voice.

"I want you to know that I'm only trying to protect you."

Sarah didn't know how to respond to any of this. Grace had never acted like this before. Sarah could tell that the kirlia was serious about what she was saying, so she simply nodded. Maybe what Grace was saying was right.

Grace put her hand back down to her side. "The merchants here said the ninetales was going to Rock Cave, so that where we're going," she said, slightly more assertively than her previous tone.

"R-right," Sarah replied quietly. Grace opened up her satchel and took something out of it. She handed it out to Sarah.

"This is the remaining human money I had left over. Go and buy something for yourself with it," Grace said, her voice still a little bit more lighter than before, but still not normal. Sarah took the money from Grace and put it in her own satchel. "There are many different shops here, so I think you should be able to find something you want. I think all of them will take this kind of money."

After this Grace closed her satchel and tightened the strap.

"I need some time alone, so I'll be waiting for you near the edge of town. We'll head out after you buy something."

"Alright. Thanks, Grace."

"Don't mention it."

Once she said this, Grace went off in her own direction, leaving Sarah by herself.

 _I hope Grace is okay,_ Sarah thought to herself. She picked back up her pace and started to look around at all the shops. _I thought that Luke was a nice guy, and I don't know what exactly happened to Grace, but after hearing that, maybe he's not._

Since Sarah couldn't read any of the signs, she decided to enter a random shop to see what they had. After all, that would be the only way to know. She slowly pushed open the door, which caused a bell above the door to ring.

"Good afternoon," a Pokemon that Sarah knew as a floatzel greeted her from a counter near the back of the shop. "Please have a look around," she continued. The only reason Sarah knew what Pokemon she was because a floatzel had lived in her village once. All the other Pokemon who were also shopping in the store, however, she had no idea who they were.

Two glass display cases were lined up on each side of the room. Both of them were showcasing what the shop was selling. Sarah carefully walked over to the glass container to her left to start browsing.

In the two years that Sarah had known her, she hadn't ever asked Grace about her past, and about her life before she moved to the forest. Now she was wondering more than ever what Grace's backstory was like.

Sarah stopped her thought trail and focused on what the store had to offer. She would have time to think about that kind of stuff later.

Through the glass, Sarah could see a number of different objects. Many of them seemed rather odd to Sarah. One of the objects was a long, black thing that looked like it could be used to start a fire. Beside it was long fang that looked like it was from some Pokemon, though what kind of Pokemon, Sarah couldn't tell by just looking at it. Next to that was some sort of pendent with a small glass container on it, which had water inside of it. Still, none of these things seemed to interest Sarah.

The gloom went over at the other end of the shop, where some more things were lined up. On the far left was some sort of gray powder that sat on a small, green piece of paper. Next to it sat a small piece of blueish-white ice that was pointed at the top. The interesting thing about it was that the ice was not melting, even though the inside of the shop was quite warm. The last item was a small bag that contained what looked like just some ordinary sand, though it looked a little less rough than sand that you would normally find on a beach.

All these things seemed interesting, but nothing seemed like something that Sarah would want. Maybe she would find something else in another store.

She walked over to the door and was about to open it before something in the corner caught her eye. It was another item that was in one of theglass cases that she had missed. Sarah hadn't seen it when she had walked in nor when she was walking around. She didn't know why it seemed to stand out from every other object and the glass container that it was placed in, but it just did.

Her curiosity rose as Sarah took her hand away from the door and slowly creeped over to where the object lay. With a closer inspection, it didn't even look like anything special. Just some ordinary, yellow seed, probably to some kind of tree. But, for some unexplainable reason, it shined with the glow of life, almost as if it was alive. It was a beautiful, but Sarah didn't know why. It was just some odd plant seed.

Sarah decided that this was the thing that she wanted. She didn't know what purpose it would serve, nor how much it costed, or even what it exactly was, beyond it being a seed, but she knew that was exactly the thing for her.

It was mysterious how it had so much of a pull on Sarah, and how it stood out from the rest of, well, everything. Maybe it was more than just a regular seed.

Sarah walked up to the counter that the floatzel was still leaning on, knowing what she wanted to buy.

"Have you decided on anything yet, sweetie?" she asked in a caring tone.

"Um…yes, I have…" Sarah stumbled over her words. She wasn't used to talking to total strangers. In the village she knew almost everyone there, and everyone she didn't know she got to know over the course of months before she would go up and talk to them. "I would like that seed in the back, over there," Sarah said with a point of her hand.

"Ah, a Miracle Seed, good choice," the floatzel nodded her head and ducked beneath the counter.

"A…uh…'what' seed?" Sarah asked shyly as the floatzel rummaged through objects below the counter, causing a bit of ruckus.

"Ah, never heard of one, eh?" The water type's muffled voice came from below the bar. "A Miracle Seed," she repeated while standing up straight. She putting said seed onto the table. It was just as bright and glamorous as the one inside the display case. Sarah took it into her hands and felt it. It felt like a normal seed to the touch, but Sarah knew that there was something more to it; much more to it.

"It's really pretty…" Sarah commented mostly to herself.

"To a grass type like yourself, I bet it is. But, it's more than just pretty. It actually has use," the floatzel said, her arms back onto the counter.

Sarah looked up from her obsession.

"How so?"

"See, if you carry that there Miracle Seed along with you, like let's say, inside your satchel," she paused momentarily to point at Sarah's bag, "then, with it, you'll find that your grass type moves are more powerful."

"Really?" Sarah looked once again back at the baby plant in her palms. "How does this small thing do something like that," she asked this question out loud again.

"Who knows?" the floatzel said with a smile. "That's why they call it a Miracle Seed."

Sarah thought about the practicality of this for a second. Was she ever really going to need this? She didn't plan on getting into any fights. Then again, whoever this ninetales was did not seem like the friendliest guy. Who knows who else would try to thwart her in her attempts to get her stones back.

In the end, Sarah decided that it was better safe than sorry. Besides, it would look pretty to her whether or not she got into conflict.

After Sarah had bought the seed, (which took all of her money) she examined its beauty one more time before putting the it in her satchel. With her item bought and all her money gone, Sarah decided that she better find Grace again so they could get going. There were still many hours in the day, and they would need to travel for all of them to start catching up with the ninetales.

The floatzel wish Sarah a good day as she left the shop, and she wished the same thing back before walking back out into the dusty street of the town.

 _Alright, so now I just need to meet up with Grace, and we can get going._ Sarah ran over her next action in her head.

Sarah took a step forwards, but was stopped by a strong gust of wind coming from her side. Sarah was not expecting this, so she braced herself and waited for the wind to pass. Before it did, however, Sarah's scarf flew off her and was blown down the street.

 _Not again!_

It looked like, once again, it had come undone, though this time Sarah had no idea as to how. She started to run after it, hoping that it wouldn't travel too far. She would hate to lose it.

Thankfully, someone from the crowd of people reached out and grabbed it. Sarah skidded to a stop and breathed a sigh of relief. That was too close.

Sarah wasn't able to fully see who had caught her scarf until they had gotten closer. Once she was able to see them clearly, she couldn't believe who it was.

"This is a really pretty scarf," Luke said as he approached her, scarf in hand. "It would be a shame if you lost it." Luke reached out his hand to give the scarf back.

"Thanks a lot. I was afraid it might have been gone for good," Sarah lightly took the scarf and wrapped it back around her.

"Yeah, well…anytime. By the way, did you make that scarf?"

"No, my mother did."

"It's very pretty," Luke repeated. "Your mother must be very good."

"Well, she's far better than I could ever be." _I wish I could be as good as her_ , Sarah added to herself with a little sigh.

After that little talk, Sarah didn't know what to say next. Remembering what Grace said, this situation was slightly awkward.

"So…funny running into you again," Sarah said to break the silence in between them.

"Small world, right?" Luke said with a smile. "Or…just a small town…I guess…since…you know…we didn't leave town…" Luke stumbled through his words. He had started off talking confidently, but by the end, his voice was barely audible, as if he was embarrassed by what he was saying. Luke laughed slightly at how dumb he had sounded. Because of this, Sarah also laughed, not at him, but with him.

After a few, laughter filled seconds, the two of them calmed down, and they were in silence again.

"Well, I'd love to talk, but I really need to get going," Sarah said. It was true, she wasn't just using it as an excuse. Sarah didn't want to keep Grace waiting for longer than she needed to.

"Ah, are you heading out the Olivine City?" Luke guessed. Sarah started to walk towards the edge of town. Luke joined and walked beside her.

"Well, not exactly, you see…" Sarah tried to think of the right words to say. Really, if what Grace said was true, she shouldn't tell him anything, but, it would just feel wrong not to tell him what was up.

"Um…you said that the ninetales was heading off towards Olivine City, right?"

"Yeah, that's where I saw him going," Luke responded confidently.

"Well, see, we heard from other people of the town that they saw him go towards Rock Cave. And my friend, well, she decided to follow their advice instead of yours." Sarah put it lightly.

"Really?" Luke put his hand on his chin as he started to think. "Who did you hear that from?"

"Some of the merchants."

Luke didn't respond for a few seconds. "Do you think that they could be two different ninetales?"

"Unlikely, since the chance of two of them carrying a glowing bag would be very slim, don't you think?"

"True…" Luke was once again silent. Eventually, he took his hand off his chin and shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I just was seeing things, or just saw a Pokemon that looked like a ninetales. In any case, you're going to Rock Cave then?"

"I think so, yeah."

Luke closed his eyes and breathed a sigh that sounded to Sarah like an exhausted sigh. Luke opened his eyes and put on a smile.

"In any case, good luck getting your stuff back."

"Thanks."

"I have some other things to do, so I'll leave you to it. See ya."

And with that, Luke turned around and headed in the opposite direction, back into town.

Sarah continued to the edge of town, to which she was very close now. She passing by a few more shops that had some interesting items in them. It was a shame that she had used all her money, but she still thought it was well spent.

Sarah soon arrived at a point where the buildings no longer appeared alongside the road. The road itself started to turn into grass, as weeds and the like had sprouted and no one had gone to trim them, seeing as no one would want to if it wasn't near the town. By all of this information, Sarah guessed that this was that edge of the town.

Indeed, just a few meters away from her, Sarah spotted her psychic friend, leaning on a rather large rock, her arms crossed, her eyes to the ground, as if she was thinking about something.

Sarah slowly approached Grace, because she didn't want to startle her. Either because Grace heard the sound of footsteps, or that she sensed someone was coming near, she lifted up her head to see who was there. Once she registered that it was Sarah, Grace pushed herself off the rock.

"Ready?" she asked as Sarah stopped in front of her.

"Yeah. Let's go," the gloom replied with a nod. Grace took the lead and Sarah followed behind her, off to Rock Cave.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading. If you have the time, tell me what you think of this story.**


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